Photo Loco – The Tricks of Spontaneous Photography
“Photo Crazy” that’s me. I’m the one who always has my camera out, on and in front of my face. I love trying to find that perfect angle where a person looks their most beautiful. I don’t mean that I only take photos of beautiful people, I think that everyone has something beautiful about them. I just like trying to capture that beauty on camera. I am not a fan of posed photos. People ham it up or have that unfortunate automatic response to blink. However, when traveling, the Golden Rule is Ask Permission. That doesn’t jive with my inclination to find someone’s natural beauty. So, over the years, I have tested and almost perfected my less than ethical methods of taking people pictures.
5 Tips to Taking Sneaky Spontaneous Photos
1. Keep a low profile Lugging out a big SLR with multiple lenses puts people immediately on the offensive. I’ve found that people are less intimidated by iPhones, camera phones and point & shoots. Something that you can quickly whip out and slip in to your purse or pocket with a minimum amount of fuss.
2. Take pictures when they aren’t looking … and hopefully before they turn their back. Just kidding… mostly. I prefer taking pictures when people are relaxed, laughing or pensive. I find a place to sit, usually in a park, on the church steps or somewhere kind of out of the way and I wait. I think of it like tracking wildlife in the jungle. Dress to blend into your environment. Study your subject to help you predict their actions. Don’t make any sudden movements.
The photo below was on a Peru tour of the Amazon, I sat on the school house steps.
3. ZoooOOoom! When I was buying a camera, I looked for one that had the highest zoom factor without purchasing an SLR. My camera has 12x optical zoom. On one hand, the zoom-iest settings become grainy, yet on the other hand I’ve been able to get close-ups that I want without actually being close.
4. MEGApixels In addition to looking at the zoom factor, I also looked for the largest amount of megapixels. With this feature, I’ve been able to quickly take wider angled photos and then later crop them to highlight the people. The problems that I’ve had with this method, is that sometimes, the people are out of focus. I still need to work on manually focusing on a subject quickly.
Andean child on my Machu Picchu vacation.
5. Be REALLY sneaky This is the best and worst skill I have. Remember high school when you wanted to stare at the boy of your dreams without looking like you were staring? You had your best friend stand in front of you, while looking over their shoulder, then you drool to your hearts content. Luckily (unfortunately), this works better for picture taking. Once I know what I want to take a picture of, I have a friend stand in front of the set up and then I take the picture over their shoulder. The pictures have turned out great, but I always look at the photos with a slight sense of guilt.
My boss has a different point of view when it comes to photography. Check out his article.
5 Reasons to Get Engaged in Photography – by Andre Kiwitz
So… What type of photographer are you?